A Legacy Of Changing Education History

City To Remember Mcintosh

A Sunday memorial will honor the Newport News superintendent who led the city's schools to integration.

Newport News fought against racially integrating its schools for nearly two decades, but desegregation occurred with relatively few problems once black students and white students began attending classes together in 1971.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Thursday, June 23, 2005.A photo caption in the June 4 Local News section omitted the name of the local artist who painted the portrait of George McIntosh in the entrance hall of McIntosh Elementary School. The artist is Agnes McMurran Johnson. (Text corrected.)

Former Superintendent George J. McIntosh receives much of the credit for the transition -- although he frequently attributed success to hard work by school employees and steadfast support from the community.

"He recognized the need for integration and saw how he could achieve that with the least disruption to society," said city historian John Quarstein. "McIntosh played the leading role in urging compliance with the new laws."

Unlike at some other Hampton Roads localities, integration occurred in Newport News without any school closing for even one day.

McIntosh died May 4 in Fredericksburg at age 90. A public memorial will be take place to honor him at 3 p.m. Sunday in the elementary school named for him on Richneck Road in Denbigh.

A New Jersey native, McIntosh graduated in 1938 from Randolph Macon College with a bachelor's degree in science. He taught at a couple of high schools before joining the Navy during World War II.

After the war, he earned a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Virginia. He began a 27-year career with Newport News Public Schools in 1948 when he was hired as principal of Newport News High School.

The School Board appointed him superintendent in 1965, and he held the system's top job until he retired in 1975. He headed the city's schools during a period of upheaval sparked by the draft, Vietnam, civil rights, political assassinations. Students and teachers frequently called him "Mr. Mac."

They remember him as an imposing figure with a crew cut that emphasized his military bearing and as someone who was warm, approachable and encouraging to students and teachers alike.

Bill Williams considers McIntosh a mentor and will speak during the memorial service. Williams attended Newport News High when McIntosh was principal. McIntosh later hired Williams as a teacher and then promoted him to principal.

Williams was the first principal at McIntosh Elementary School when it opened in 1976.

"Every step along the way, he gave me encouragement to go to the next level," Williams said. "He made you grow because he had confidence in you."

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed public schools that separated students by race in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

One year later, though, it allowed for gradual, rather than immediate, desegregation by handing enforcement duties to local district courts.

Virginia lawmakers, headed by Sen. Harry Byrd Sr., put the state at the forefront of opposition by passing a series of laws that aimed to avoid integration. The strategy was commonly known as massive resistance.

Not until July 1970 did the NAACP finally file the lawsuit that forced Newport News to desegregate. Plans to integrate the schools through court-ordered busing quickly drew protests from many residents.

McIntosh never favored busing because of the time and money spent on overcoming the logistical problems stemming from the city's long, narrow shape. But that didn't matter.

"Whether we thought busing was right or wrong, it was the law, and we had to enforce it," he once told the Daily Press. "A public official is expected to uphold the law."

McIntosh took a practical approach to busing that avoided the political turmoil dividing the city. "I'd think of that six- or seven-year-old out on the corner with no road or sidewalk, waiting for a bus," he said. "Then I'd try to make a decision that would be best for him."

In 1976, the state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights praised McIntosh for his leadership during desegregation.

The committee found that black and white students participated in classrooms and after-school activities on an equal basis. "He approached it with a kind of calm and confidence that helped build trust in the community," said Elva Williams Hunt, a retired administrator who worked in the school system for 42 years.

"For the time, it was probably the best way for the community." *

GEORGE MCINTOSH

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at McIntosh Elementary School, 185 Richneck Road, for former Newport News Superintendent George J. McIntosh, who died May 4. The public is invited to honor the man who: